Discussion

Best eggs? (farm fresh, organic preffered) Egg connaisseurs please!

hi all, i'm looking for the best eggs available in toronto. i'm not talking about prepared breakfast and stuff like that, i'm just talking about eggs alone, untouched. farm fresh, organic preffered.

i went to spain and bought some organic eggs and they taste way better than any organic eggs we have here in toronto (that i've tried) and i'm wondering if anyone knows where to get good eggs from? if you know of a farmer that has good eggs, that would be ideal. these canadian eggs keep me wanting more! there is better out there and if you could help me find it that'd be wonderful.

Don't know if there's anything truly special about them, but you can buy eggs from Mennonite farmers at Fresh From the Farm. While they are not labeled organic, the chickens are raised using traditional farming techniques -- no hormones, small farms, etc.

When I was there last year buying my turkey, I picked up a carton of eggs. They were not PC eggs. Can't guarantee they were Mennonite eggs, but I have no reason to think I was deceived. In any event, I don't recall anything different about taste of the actual eggs.

I haven't bought eggs there in a while, but when I did, they were stored in the fridge in flats of 24, then transferred into smaller containers based on the size of your order. So they may indeed be reusing cartons. They are really nice there, so I would just ask where the eggs are sourced from. I can't imagine any reason for them to deceive.

I doubt very much they are selling PC eggs. As has been mentioned by dinin and dishin and TorontoJo, they keep the eggs in flats of 24 and reuse smaller containers based on the size of your order. Fresh from the Farm doesn't seem like the kind of place to me that would tell you they were selling you something and give you something else.

Fresh from the Farm definitely does not resell PC eggs - I've been buying my eggs from them for years now and they are consistently fresh and tasty. There's a big sign in the store that asks customers to bring back their egg cartons so they can reuse them. Merlot143, you just happened to receive a reused PC egg carton.

I would like to find fresh eggs from local organic farms too. The kind that Michael Pollan describes in his book "The Omnivore's Dillemma". The eggs he describes have yolks that are a deep golden colour and intense flavour. I have been buying the Omega 3 Cage Free eggs at Fiesta Farms. They're good but I think I can get better. But where???

i've also read that book and those are the kind of eggs i have in mind too. they sound good. it's hard for chickens to get deep yellow egg yolks (from the beta carotene) if they're indoors all the time. if they go outside then that's where they can pick at the grass and get their omega-3s and beta-carotene.

apparently omega-3 enhanced eggs are from hens fed canola seeds.

i'm trying to find eggs from hens like the ones described in omnivore's dilemma, but i imagine it would be very hard.

some guy at the dufferin grove market sells eggs but i think his hens are all dying because he always runs out by the time i get there. i need a more dependable source than that.. and still, the egg yolks are sometimes pasty yellow.

i think organic meadow eggs are a rip off. les biologiques eggs from quebec seem to be ok, but many of them pasty yellow once again. other organic ones sold at stores have disappointed me too... i really want there to be something else out there!

as for what the fuss is about, meat and eggs generally taste the same organic, unless the standards are really bad conventional. it's vegetables and fruit where you can recognize a taste difference.

as for the hype, they have a bit more flavour, but the organic eggs here aren't impressive. it's just healthier than eating eggs from super stressed battery caged hens. battery cages where hens live in cages with other dead hens with putrid air and sleep in their own feces and molted feathers... it's a reality for eggs in ontario, which is the reason i shop organic.

if all you're concerned about is taste, the difference would be marginal, unless, once again, the standards are really low for the conventional ones.

farm fresh eggs, conventional or not, beat out their old store counterparts for sure. safer to use farm fresh eggs if you put them in smoothies or make mayonnaise, or use a dish where the flavour of the eggs is really important. if you've ever eaten eggs raw you can tell the taste is quite different for fresh eggs versus store-bought ones.

i was told that if the white is slightly runny then they are fresh, if it's more solid and less runny then it's most likely old.

Yes, they're the egg stall in the almost absolute middle of the farmers' market.

I appreciate your response dr t. Taste isn't my only consideration. I firmly believe in honouring the plants and creatures that provide our bounty before they make the ultimate sacrifice. Where their health and happiness goes, so does ours. I had thought I'd been buying eggs properly until very recently. I'd like to make the switch to organic immediately.

I really do like his eggs, that combined with the fact that he and his wife are just lovely people keep me coming back. Now I don't believe they are organic but they do have free range eggs and even some thursday/friday eggs (I assume that means they are the really fresh ones).

I don't know about them being organic but I can attest to the Thur/Fri eggs being fresh.We consider it a huge treat to go down to the market early on a Sat morning and buy a dozen eggs to poach when we get home. There is very little of the scummy, stringy bits in the pot which shows you that there was no runny, aged whites.

But the yolks are not the beautiful almost orange that you can get in Europe and the UK.